March 27 (Reuters) - La Quinta Holdings Inc will raise as
much as $780 million from its initial public offering, as it
becomes the third hotel chain to be taken public by Blackstone
Group LP in six months.

Blackstone has been aggressively selling or taking public
its real estate assets at a time when the U.S. hotel industry
has been recovering.

Room rates and occupancy levels expected to increase this
year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Blackstone took Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc public
in the biggest-ever hotel IPO in December. It has also bought
shopping center company Brixmor Property Group Inc and
hotel chain Extended Stay America Inc to the market
last year.

Blackstone, the largest publicly listed alternative asset
manager, took La Quinta private in 2006 in a $3.4 billion deal.

The Irving, Texas-based hotel chain expects to sell all the
37.2 million shares in its IPO at between $18 and $21 per share,
it said in a filing with U.S. regulators on Thursday. (r.reuters.com/fud97v)

The company will have an equity valuation of $2.57 billion
at the top of the expected price range. It had pro forma total
debt of $2.1 billion at Dec. 31, 2013.

The IPO will be priced on April 8, an underwriter told
Reuters. The company's stock is expected to begin trading a day
later under the symbol "LQ" on the New York Stock Exchange.

With more than 830 hotels, La Quinta is one of the largest
owners and operators of budget hotels in the United States.

It posted net income of $44.5 million on total revenue of
$909 million, on a pro forma basis, in 2013.

Blackstone will hold a stake of about 64 percent in La
Quinta after the IPO if the underwriters fully exercise their
option to buy additional shares, according to the IPO filing.
(Reporting by Aman Shah in Bangalore; Editing by Savio D'Souza)